Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens · OverDrive: eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries Fiction Literature Set partly in America, which Dickens had visited in 1842, the novel includes a searing satire on the United States. Martin Chuzzlewit is the story of two Chuzzlewits, Martin and Jonas, who have inherited the characteristic Chuzzlewit selfishness. It contrasts their diverse fates of moral redemption and worldly success for one, with increasingly desperate crime for the other. This powerful black comedy involves hypocrisy, greed and blackmail, as well as the most famous of Dickens's grotesques, Mrs Gamp. In her introduction to this new Penguin Classics edition, Patricia Ingham discusses how, in writing a story that was only meant to 'recommend goodness and innocence', Dickens succeeded in exploring 'the intertwining of moral sensibility and brutality.' Dickens: A Brief Biography Dickens: A Brief Biography [ Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Authors —> Charles Dickens —> Biography —> Works ] harles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. John Dickens was a clerk in the Naval Pay Office.

He had a poor head for finances, and in 1824 found himself imprisoned for debt. His wife and children, with the exception of Charles, who was put to work at Warren's Blacking Factory , joined him in the Marshalsea Prison. When the family finances were put at least partly to rights and his father was released, the twelve-year-old Dickens, already scarred psychologically by the experience, was further wounded by his mother's insistence that he continue to work at the factory. His father, however, rescued him from that fate, and between 1824 and 1827 Dickens was a day pupil at a school in London. At fifteen, he found employment as an office boy at an attorney's, while he studied shorthand at night. His brief stint at the Blacking Factory haunted him all of his life — he spoke of it only to his wife and to his closest friend, John Forster — but the dark secret became a source both of creative energy and of the preoccupation with the themes of alienation and betrayal which would emerge, most notably, in David Copperfield and in Great Expectations .

In 1829 he became a free-lance reporter at Doctor's Commons Courts, and in 1830 he met and fell in love with Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker. By 1832 he had become a very successful shorthand reporter of Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons, and began work as a reporter for a newspaper. In 1833 his relationship with Maria Beadnell ended, probably because her parents did not think him a good match (a not very flattering version of her would appear years later in Little Dorrit). In the same year his first published story appeared, and was followed, very shortly thereafter, by a number of other stories and sketches. In 1834, still a newspaper reporter, he adopted the soon to be famous pseudonym "Boz." His impecunious father (who was the original of Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield, as Dickens's mother was the original for the querulous Mrs. Nickleby) was once again arrested for debt, and Charles, much to his chagrin, was forced to come to his aid. Later in his life both of his parents (and his brothers) were frequently after him for money.

In 1835 he met and became engaged to Catherine Hogarth. The first series of Sketches by Boz was published in 1836, and that same year Dickens was hired to write short texts to accompany a series of humorous sporting illustrations by Robert Seymour, a popular artist. Seymour committed suicide after the second number, however, and under these peculiar circumstances Dickens altered the initial conception of The Pickwick Papers , which became a novel (illustrated by Hablot K. Browne , "Phiz," whose association with Dickens would continue for many years). The Pickwick Papers continued in monthly parts through November 1837, and, to everyone's surprise, it became an enormous popular success. Dickens proceeded to marry Catherine Hogarth on April 2, 1836, and during the same year he became editor of Bentley's Miscellany, published (in December) the second series of Sketches by Boz, and met John Forster, who would become his closest friend and confidant as well as his first biographer.

After the success of Pickwick, Dickens embarked on a full-time career as a novelist, producing work of increasing complexity at an incredible rate, although he continued, as well, his journalistic and editorial activities. Oliver Twist was begun in 1837, and continued in monthly parts until April 1839. It was in 1837, too, that Catherine's younger sister Mary, whom Dickens idolized, died. She too would appear, in various guises, in Dickens's later fiction. A son, Charles, the first of ten children, was born in the same year. Nicholas Nickleby got underway in 1838, and continued through October 1839, in which year Dickens resigned as editor of Bentley's Miscellany. The first number of Master Humphrey's Clock appeared in 1840, and The Old Curiosity Shop, begun in Master Humphrey, continued through February 1841, when Dickens commenced Barnaby Rudge, which continued through November of that year.

In 1842 he embarked on a visit to Canada and the United States in which he advocated international copyright (unscrupulous American publishers, in particular, were pirating his works) and the abolition of slavery. His American Notes, which created a furor in America (he commented unfavorably, for one thing, on the apparently universal — and, so far as Dickens was concerned, highly distasteful — American predilection for chewing tobacco and spitting the juice), appeared in October of that year. Martin Chuzzlewit, part of which was set in a not very flatteringly portrayed America, was begun in 1843, and ran through July 1844. A Christmas Carol, the first of Dickens's enormously successful Christmas books — each, though they grew progressively darker, intended as "a whimsical sort of masque intended to awaken loving and forbearing thoughts" — appeared in December 1843. In that same year, Dickens and his family toured Italy, and were much abroad, in Italy, Switzerland, and France, until 1847.

Dickens returned to London in December 1844, when The Chimes was published, and then went back to Italy, not to return to England until July of 1845. 1845 also brought the debut of Dickens's amateur theatrical company, which would occupy a great deal of his time from then on. The Cricket and the Hearth, a third Christmas book, was published in December, and his Pictures From Italy appeared in 1846 in the "Daily News," a paper which Dickens founded and of which, for a short time, he was the editor. In 1847, in Switzerland, Dickens began Dombey and Son, which ran until April 1848. The Battle of Life appeared in December of that year. In 1848 Dickens also wrote an autobiographical fragment, directed and acted in a number of amateur theatricals, and published what would be his last Christmas book, The Haunted Man, in December. 1849 saw the birth of David Copperfield, which would run through November 1850.

In that year, too, Dickens founded and installed himself as editor of the weekly Household Words , which would be succeeded, in 1859, by All the Year Round , which he edited until his death. 1851 found him at work on Bleak House, which appeared monthly from 1852 until September 1853. In 1853 he toured Italy with Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins , and gave, upon his return to England, the first of many public readings from his own works. Hard Times began to appear weekly in Household Words in 1854, and continued until August. Dickens's family spent the summer and the fall in Boulogne. In 1855 they arrived in Paris in October, and Dickens began Little Dorrit, which continued in monthly parts until June 1857. In 1856 Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated on a play, The Frozen Deep, and Dickens purchased Gad's Hill, an estate he had admired since childhood. The Dickens family spent the summer of 1857 at a renovated Gad's Hill.

Hans Christian Anderson, whose fairy tales Dickens admired greatly, visited them there and quickly wore out his welcome. Dickens's theatrical company performed The Frozen Deep for the Queen, and when a young actress named Ellen Ternan joined the cast in August, Dickens fell in love with her. In 1858, in London, Dickens undertook his first public readings for pay, and quarreled with his old friend and rival, the great novelist Thackeray. More importantly, it was in that year that, after a long period of difficulties, he separated from his wife. They had been for many years "tempermentally unsuited" to each other. Dickens, charming and brilliant though he was, was also fundamentally insecure emotionally, and must have been extraordinarily difficult to live with. In 1859 his London readings continued, and he began a new weekly, All the Year Round. The first installment of A Tale of Two Cities appeared in the opening number, and the novel continued through November. By 1860, the Dickens family had taken up residence at Gad's Hill.

Dickens, during a period of retrospection, burned many personal letters, and re-read his own David Copperfield, the most autobiographical of his novels, before beginning Great Expectations , which appeared weekly until August 1861. 1861 found Dickens embarking upon another series of public readings in London, readings which would continue through the next year. In 1863, he did public readings both in Paris and London, and reconciled with Thackeray just before the latter's death. Our Mutual Friend was begun in 1864, and appeared monthly until November 1865. Dickens was in poor health, due largely to consistent overwork. In 1865, an incident occurred which disturbed Dickens greatly, both psychologically and physically: Dickens and Ellen Ternan, returning from a Paris holiday, were badly shaken up in a railway accident in which a number of people were injured. 1866 brought another series of public readings, this time in various locations in England and Scotland, and still more public readings, in England and Ireland, were undertaken in 1867. Dickens was now really unwell but carried on, compulsively, against his doctor's advice.

Late in the year he embarked on an American reading tour, which continued into 1868. Dickens's health was worsening, but he took over still another physically and mentally exhausting task, editorial duties at All the Year Round. During 1869, his readings continued, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, until at last he collapsed, showing symptoms of mild stroke. Further provincial readings were cancelled, but he began upon The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dickens's final public readings took place in London in 1870. He suffered another stroke on June 8 at Gad's Hill, after a full day's work on Edwin Drood, and died the next day. He was buried at Westminster Abbey on June 14, and the last episode of the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood appeared in September. David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page - Dickens in America Dickens in America Read Dickens' speech Dickens' American Observations 1842 Boston - The city is a beautiful one, and cannot fail, I should imagine, to impress all strangers very favourably.

New York - The beautiful metropolis of America is by no means so clean a city as Boston, but many of its streets have the same characteristics; except that the houses are not quite so fresh-coloured, the sign-boards are not quite so gaudy, the gilded letters not quite so golden, the bricks not quite so red, the stone not quite so white, the blinds and area railings not quite so green, the knobs and plates upon the street-doors not quite so bright and twinkling. Philadelphia - It is a handsome city, but distractingly regular. After walking about it for an hour or two, I felt that I would have given the world for a crooked street. The collar of my coat appeared to stiffen, and the brim of my hat to expand, beneath its Quakerly influence. Baltimore - This capital of the state of Maryland is a bustling, busy town, with a great deal of traffic of various kinds, and in particular of water commerce. That portion of the town which it most favours is none of the cleanest, it is true; but the upper part is of a very different character, and has many agreeable streets and public buildings.

Washington - It is sometimes called the City of Magnificent Distances, but it might with greater propriety be termed the City of Magnificent Intentions; for it is only on taking a bird's-eye view of it from the top of the Capitol that one can at all comprehend the vast designs of its projector, an aspiring Frenchman. Spacious avenues that begin in nothing, and lead nowhere; streets, mile long, that only want houses, roads, and inhabitants; public buildings that need but a public to be complete; and ornaments of great thoroughfares, which only lack great thoroughfares to ornament -- are its leading features. Richmond - The next day, and the next, we rode and walked about the town, which is delightfully situated on eight hills, overhanging James River; a sparkling stream, studded here and there with bright islands, or brawling over broken rocks. Although it was yet but the middle of March, the weather in this southern temperature was extremely warm; the peach-trees and magnolias were in full bloom; and the trees were green. Cincinnati - Cincinnati is a beautiful city; cheerful, thriving, and animated.

I have not often seen a place that commends itself so favourably and pleasantly to a stranger at the first glance as this does: with its clean houses of red and white, its well-paved roads, and footways bright tile. Nor does it become less prepossessing on a closer acquaintance. The streets are broad and airy, the shops extremely good, the private residences remarkable for their elegance and neatness. Louisville - There was nothing very interesting in the scenery of this day's journey, which brought us at midnight to Louisville. We slept at the Galt House; a splendid hotel; and were as handsomely lodged as though we had been in Paris, rather than hundreds of miles beyond the Alleghanies. St. Louis - In the old French portion of the town the thoroughfares are narrow and crooked, and some of the houses are very quaint and picturesque: being built of wood, with tumble-down galleries before the windows, approachable by stairs, or rather ladders, from the street. There are queer little barbers' shops, and drinking-houses too, in this quarter; and abundance of crazy old tenements with blinking casements, such as may be seen in Flanders.

Some of these ancient habitations, with high garret gable windows perking into the roofs, have a kind of French shrug about them; and, being lop-sided with age, appear to hold their heads askew besides, as if they were grimacing in astonishment at the American Improvements. Niagara Falls - It was not until I came on Table Rock, and looked -- Great Heaven, on what a fall of bright green water! -- that it came upon me in its full might and majesty. Then, when I felt how near to my Creator I was standing, the first effect, and the enduring one -- instant and lasting -- of the tremendous spectacle, was Peace. Montreal - Montreal is pleasantly situated on the margin of the St. Lawrence, and is backed by some bold heights, about which there are charming rides and drives. The streets are generally narrow and irregular, as in most French towns of any age; but, in the more modern parts of the city, they are wide and airy. All the rides in the vicinity were made doubly interesting by the bursting out of spring, which is here so rapid that it is but a day's leap from barren winter to the blooming youth of summer.

Dickens' will stipulated that no memorial be erected to honor him. The only statue of Dickens, cast in bronze in 1891 by Frank Edwin Elwell, is located in Clark Park, Philadelphia . While in the Boston area Dickens visited the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind where he observed Laura Bridgman (1829-1889), a blind and deaf girl. Dickens chronicled in American Notes Laura's remarkable education through the teaching of Samuel Gridley Howe, director of the school. 40 years later Captain Arthur Keller and his wife, Kate, read Dickens' account of Laura Bridgman and the Perkins Institution. The Keller's blind and deaf daughter, Helen Keller (1880-1968), also received part of her remarkable education at the Perkins school through Anne Sullivan, a visually impaired teacher and recent graduate of the institution. In keeping with his fascination for the unusual, visits to prisons, hospitals for the insane, reform schools, and schools for blind and deaf children were high on his list of places to visit in almost every city he toured. He also toured factories, the industrial mills of Lowell, Massachusetts , a Shaker village in New York, and a prairie in Illinois.

While in Washington he attended sessions of Congress, toured the White House, and met President Tyler. In the White House, as just about everywhere he went in America, Dickens was appalled at the American male passion for chewing tobacco. He gives this account of a visit to the Capital building: Both Houses are handsomely carpeted; but the state to which these carpets are reduced by the universal disregard of the spittoon with which every honourable member is accommodated, and the extraordinary improvements on the pattern which are squirted and dabbled upon it in every direction, do not admit of being described. I will merely observe, that I strongly recommend all strangers not to look at the floor; and if they happen to drop anything, though it be their purse, not to pick it up with an ungloved hand on any account. It is somewhat remarkable too, at first, to say the least, to see so many honourable members with swelled faces; and it is scarcely less remarkable to discover that this appearance is caused by the quantity of tobacco they contrive to stow within the hollow of the cheek.

It is strange enough, too, to see an honourable gentleman leaning back in his tilted chair, with his legs on the desk before him, shaping a convenient "plug" with his penknife, and, when it is quite ready for use, shooting the old one from his mouth as from a pop-gun, and clapping the new one in its place. Dickens wanted to see the South and observe slavery first hand. His initial plan was to go to Charleston but because of the heat and the length of the trip he settled for Richmond, Virginia. He was revolted by what he saw in Richmond, both by the condition of the slaves themselves and by the whites' attitudes towards slavery. In American Notes, the book written after he returned to England describing his American visit, he wrote scathingly about the institution of slavery, citing newspaper accounts of runaway slaves horribly disfigured by their cruel masters. Mermaid House While visiting St. Louis, Dickens expressed a desire to see an American prairie before returning east. Finding no shortage of men wishing to accommodate the great author, a group of 13 men set out with Dickens to visit Looking Glass Prairie, a trip of some 30 miles into Illinois.

During the trip the entourage stayed at the Mermaid House, an inn in Lebanon, Illinois built by retired sea captain Lyman Adams in 1830. Dickens described the hotel in American Notes: "In point of cleanliness and comfort it would have suffered by no comparison with any village alehouse, of a homely kind, in England." From Richmond Dickens returned to Washington and started a trek westward to St. Louis. Traveling by riverboat and stagecoach the Dickens entourage, which included Dickens, his wife Kate , Kate's maid, Anne Brown, and George Putnam , Charles' traveling secretary, endured quite an adventure. Gaining anonymity and more personal freedom the further west they went, Dickens' power of observation provides a very entertaining and enlightening view of early America. Dickens came away from his American experience with a sense of disappointment. To his friend William Macready he wrote "this is not the republic I came to see; this is not the republic of my imagination". On returning to England Dickens began an account of his American trip which he completed in four months. Not only did Dickens attack slavery in American Notes, he also attacked the American press whom he blamed for the American's lack of general information.

In Dickens' next novel, Martin Chuzzlewit , he sends young Martin to America where he continues to vent his feelings for the young republic. American response to both books was extremely negative but eventually the passion subsided and Dickens' popularity was restored. Back to Top Second American Visit - 1867-68 In the late 1850s Dickens began to contemplate a second visit to America, tempted by the money that he believed he could make by extending his reading tour , hugely successful in Britain, to the New World. The outbreak of the Civil War in America in 1861 put those plans on hold. After the war, renewed offers Dickens by J. Gurney, New York 1867 from America of huge profits to be made if Dickens would read there convinced him to go, despite questions of poor health and objections from his friend and advisor, John Forster and others. Dickens' argument for going was penned in what he called the "Case in a Nutshell" which he forwarded to Forster and other doubters. Having decided to make the trip, he arrived in Boston on November 19, 1867.

Though a few articles appeared in the press concerning Dickens' comments made following his first American visit, more than a quarter of a century before, these were quickly forgotten and he was again adored by the American public. His health, however, was in rapid decline and he suffered greatly during this trip. On several occasions Dickens' manager on the tour, George Dolby, feared that he would not be able to go on with an evening's reading. However, no shows were cancelled. Dickens quipped that "No man had a right to break an engagement with the public if he were able to be out of bed." The original plan called for a visit to Chicago and as far west as St. Louis. Because of ill-health and bad weather this idea was scrapped and Dickens did not venture from the northeastern states. He stayed for five months and gave 76 performances for which he earned an incredible $228,000. After expenses of $39,000 he was able to bank nearly £19,000. Mark Twain saw Dickens perform in January, 1868 at the Steinway Hall in New York and gave this report .

At a dinner in his honor in New York on April 18, 1868 Dickens, alluding to negative aspects of the 1842 trip, noted that both he and America had undergone considerable change since his last visit. He commented on the excellent treatment he had received from everyone he came in contact with on this trip and vowed to include these words as an appendix to every copy of the two books in which he refers to America ( American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit ). Dickens 1867-68 Reading Tour Kate Douglas Wiggin Following a Dickens reading in Portland, Maine, on the 30th of March, 1868 12-year-old Kate Wiggin, having missed the Portland reading, encountered Charles Dickens on a train bound for Boston. Dickens was quite taken with this precocious child and spent considerable time talking with her during the journey. He was amused when she told him that she had read all of his books, skipping over some of the "lengthy dull parts." Kate grew up to be a novelist herself, publishing Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in 1903.

In 1912 she published her account of the meeting with Dickens as A Child's Journey with Dickens . The Old Curiosity Shop in Braille During his 1867-68 reading tour in America Dickens was contacted by Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, founder of the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts, asking permission to publish The Old Curiosity Shop in braille. Dickens, who had visited the Perkins school in 1842 and had devoted 14 pages to it in American Notes, went even further. He paid $1700 to have 250 copies of the book printed in braille and distributed to all of the blind schools in America. Dickens as a Fiction Writer | The Dickens Fellowship Dickens as a Fiction Writer Dicken's Dream" Dickens completed 14 novels and started another. None of them has so far vanished into obscurity. One or two are considered to be among the greatest novels of all time. Dickens wrote numerous shorter works of fiction, including five Christmas books, among which A Christmas Carol stands out as a masterpiece, regularly read and interpreted to this day.

Below are some short introductions to the novels and to A Christmas Carol, in the order in which they were written. The Pickwick Papers (1836-1837) A rambling tale about the adventures of the naive good-natured Mr Pickwick and his travelling companions. The streetwise Sam Weller, recruited along the way by Pickwick, helps them to survive. Full of fun, capturing the exuberant spirit of the young Dickens, this work built on his earlier Sketches by Boz to catapult him to fame and is still one of the best loved books in English Literature. Oliver Twist (1837-1839) With a serious theme, to expose the abuse and corruption suffered by children, this second major work is nevertheless full of humour, but of a satirical kind. The orphan Oliver Twist manages to survive the worst that the authorities and criminal fraternity put him through. The scene of Oliver's plea in the workhouse for more to eat is familiar to countless millions, even to those who have never read the book.

Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839) A tale of how the young Nicholas Nickleby and his sister make good after they and their mother are left penniless. Following a bad start working under Wackford Squeers, the cruel schoolmaster of a Yorkshire boarding school, Nicholas comes eventually to thrive, thanks in great measure to the help of Newman Noggs, clerk to his hateful uncle, and to the goodwill of the Cheeryble brothers, benevolent businessmen. The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841) This story, written for the shortlived magazine Master Humphrey's Clock, has a young girl, Little Nell, fleeing with her grandfather from the clutches of the repulsive Quilp, a malicious moneylender. Their flight exposes them to a variety of experiences and characters, many having to do with the vagabonds and itinerant entertainers of the time. The death of Little Nell is among the best known scenes in the works of Dickens.

Barnaby Rudge (1841) The first of Dickens's two historical novels, set in the period that led up to the Gordon Riots of 1780 against Roman Catholicism. Barnaby is a half-witted young man who becomes caught up in the mayhem, but escapes the gallows through the intervention of Gabriel Varden, a locksmith. Dolly Varden, the coquettish daughter of Gabriel, is a creation whose name was subsequently used for a style of dress and hat. Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844) Selfishness, as typified by the young Martin Chuzzlewit, and hypocrisy, as typified by Mr Seth Pecksniff, who purports to be an architect, are among the themes of this work. Martin is chastened and humbled by his experiences in the USA, which Dickens portrays as a country full of vulgar, brash and boastful people. This work contains one of Dickens's great creations: the often intoxicated Mrs Sairey Gamp, a midwife, sick nurse and layer-out of the dead.

A Christmas Carol (1843) The first of five Christmas books written by Dickens in the 1840s, this is one of the best known and best loved of all his works. It tells of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge from a tight-fisted curmudgeon to a generous and genial man. This is brought about by a haunting and visions at Christmas that remind him of happier days, demonstrate the generous spirit of others in adversity, and terrify him with dire prospects should he not change his ways. Dombey and Son (1846-1848) Pervading this work are the pride and cold-hearted obduracy of Mr Paul Dombey Senior, a businessman. Following the death of his first wife, he invests all of his hopes in Paul, their only son, neglecting their daughter, Florence. But the fragile boy dies. Dombey marries again, but his will is thwarted by stubborn resistance and treachery, and he loses his fortune. A broken man, he is eventually reconciled to his daughter who has remained true throughout.

David Copperfield (1848-1850) This story, narrated in the first person, of a man who becomes a successful author, is partially autobiographical. It is generally considered to be a masterpiece. Leo Tolstoy, who was greatly influenced by it in his early writing, accorded it the highest of rankings. The quality of writing is especially evident in the description of a storm. Among a number of memorable characters is that of Mr Wilkins Micawber, who resembles in some respects Dickens's father. Bleak House (1851-1853) A prolonged law case concerning the distribution of an estate, which brings misery and ruin to the suitors but great profit to the lawyers, is the foundation for this story. Told in part through the eyes of the principal character, Esther Summerson, it is a complex one involving a good many secrets, a murder and a number of investigators. Among these is a professional detective, Inspector Bucket. Bleak House is the home of John Jarndyce, principal member of the family involved in the law case.

Hard Times (1854) The shortest of Dickens's novels, set in a northern industrial town, this champions imagination, fun and experience against the fact-based, stern and bookish philosophies of the time, as epitomised in the outlook of Thomas Gradgrind, one of the principal characters. Faced with the effects of his rigid attitudes on the lives of his son and daughter, he comes to accept the emptiness of his pet precepts. Little Dorrit (1855-1857) Here Dickens plays on the theme of imprisonment, drawing on his own experience as a boy of visiting his father in a debtors' prison. William Dorrit is locked up for years in that prison, attended daily by his daughter, Little Dorrit. Her unappreciated self-sacrifice comes to the attention of Arthur Clennam, recently returned from China, who helps bring about her father's release but is himself incarcerated for a time when his business speculation fails. Little Dorrit, unable to adjust to a world of plenty, eventually finds contentment caring for Clennam and, following the loss of her father and the family fortune, they marry.

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) This, the second of Dickens's two historical novels, relates to the French Revolution, the two cities being London and Paris. French-born Charles Darnay, settled in London, returns to Paris to help save the life of his agent, but is eventually himself condemned to death. He is saved by the self-sacrifice of Sydney Carton, who takes his place, having previously led a debauched and wasteful life. Carton's words at the very end of the novel are widely familiar: It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. Great Expectations (1860-1861) Like David Copperfield, this story is narrated in the first person. The narrator, Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, looks back over his life, from his rural boyhood, under the care of a ferocious sister and her mild husband, a blacksmith, to living the life of a gentleman in London, funded by a mysterious benefactor.

The mystery solved, his pretentiousness was destroyed, and he then had to cope with some harsh realities, remorseful of the way he had treated those who loved him most. Central to the story is the strange recluse, Miss Havisham, deranged by having been jilted on her wedding day. Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865) The basis of this carefully plotted story is the desire of John Harmon, an heir to the fortune of a refuse contractor, to disguise his identity till he has formed an opinion of Bella Wilfer, the woman he is supposed to marry under the terms of his father's will. From the time he finds himself assumed dead, complications abound, but all turns out well in the end. Opinions differ widely as to the ranking of this novel, the last which Dickens completed, but it is undoubtedly a model of his outstanding craftmanship. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) Dickens had completed nearly half of this story when he died. Speculation about how it would have ended has since tended to attract greater interest than any assessment of the work as it stands. The central mystery of the story arises from the disappearance of Edwin Drood.

It seems likely that he has been murdered. There is evidence to suppose that this is what Dickens had had in mind, but the identity of the murderer, if there was such, has been a cause of much dispute. The episodes published were very popular and some passages are considered to be among the most sublime that Dickens wrote. Charles Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit: Charles Dickens, Patricia Ingham: 9780140436143 - Christianbook.com Martin Chuzzlewit This product is not available for expedited shipping. * This product is available for shipment only to the USA. Others Also Purchased (15) Product Description ▼▲ Set partly in America, which Dickens had visited in 1842, the novel includes a searing satire on the United States and is the story of two Chuzzlewits, Martin and Jonas, who have inherited the characteristic Chuzzlewit selfishness. It contrasts their diverse fates of moral redemption and wordly success for one, with increasingly desperate crime for the other. This powerful black comedy involves hypocrisy, greed and blackmail, as well as one of the most famous of Dickens's grotesques, Mrs. Gamp.

Product Information Dimensions: 7.78 X 5.10 X 1.42 (inches) ISBN: 0140436146 Bethany House / 2014 / Trade Paperback $2.99 Retail: InterVarsity Press / 1999 / Trade Paperback $6.49 Retail: Ave Maria Press / 1948 / Hardcover $163.49 Retail: Answers in Genesis / 2016 / Other $159.99 Retail: ▼▲ Charles Dickens's powerful black comedy of of hypocrisy and greed The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic, leaving his grandson and namesake to make his own way in the world. And so young Martin sets out from the Wiltshire home of his supposed champion, the scheming architect Pecksniff, to seek his fortune in America.

In depicting Martin's journey - an experience that teaches him to question his inherited self-interest and egotism - Dickens created many vividly realized figures: the brutish lout Jonas Chuzzlewit, plotting to gain the family fortune; Martin's optimistic manservant, Mark Tapley; gentle Tom Pinch; and the drunken and corrupt private nurse, Mrs Gamp. With its portrayal of greed, blackmail and murder, and its searing satire on America Dickens's novel is a powerful and blackly comic story of hypocrisy and redemption. In her introduction, Patricia Ingham examines characterization, the central themes of the novel, and Dickens's depiction of America. This edition also includes two new prefaces, Dickens's postscript written in 1868, his working papers, a note on Mrs Gamp's eccentric speech, a chronology, updated further reading, appendices and original illustrations by 'Phiz'. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines.

Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. Author Bio ▼▲ Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsea, England. He died in Kent on June 9, 1870. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know not only hunger and privation,but also the horror of the infamous debtors prison and the evils of child labor. A turn of fortune in the shape of a legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and "slave" factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years formal schooling at Wellington House Academy. He worked as an attorneys clerk and newspaper reporter until his Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Pickwick Papers (1837) brought him the amazing and instant success that was to be his for the remainder of his life. In later years, the pressure of serial writing, editorial duties, lectures, and social commitments led to his separation from Catherine Hogarth after twenty-three years of marriage.

It also hastened his death at the age of fifty-eight, when he was characteristically engaged in a multitude of work. Patricia Ingham is Senior Research Fellow and Reader at St Anne's College, Oxford. She has written on the Victorian novel and on Hardy in particular. She is the General Editor of all Hardy's fiction in the Penguin Classics and has edited Gaskell's North and South for the series. Editorial Reviews ▼▲ Martin Chuzzlewit is a dramatic serial on Masterpiece Theatre, a PBS television series presented by WGBH-TV, Boston, made possible by a grant from Mobil Corporation. Product Reviews Charles Dickens - Author - Biography.com Charles Dickens Charles Dickens was the well-loved and prolific British author of numerous works that are now considered classics. IN THESE GROUPS » quotes “The English are, as far as I know, the hardest worked people on whom the sun shines.

Be content if in their wretched intervals of leisure they read for amusement and do no worse.” “I write because I can't help it.” “Literature cannot be too faithful to the people, cannot too ardently advocate the cause of their advancement, happiness and prosperity.” “An author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him forever.” “Nobody has done more harm in this single generation than everybody can mend in 10 generations.” “If I were soured [on writing], I should still try to sweeten the lives and fancies of others; but I am not—not at all.” “Well, the work is hard, the climate is hard, the life is hard: but so far the gain is enormous.” “Who that has ever reflected on the enormous and vast amount of leave-taking there is in life can ever have doubted the existence of another?” “I never knew what it was to feel disgust and contempt, till I traveled in America.” “My great ambition is to live in the hearts and homes of home-loving people, and to be connected with the truth of the truthful English life.” Charles Dickens Charles Dickens - One Last Chance (

TV-PG; 2:06) Novelist Charles Dickens set out on public speaking tours of his most beloved work to both the United States and Great Britain in need of money but cost him his health.

Synopsis British novelist Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. Over the course of his writing career, he wrote the beloved classic novels Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. On June 9, 1870, Dickens died of a stroke in Kent, England, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. Early Life Famed British author Charles Dickens was born Charles John Huffam Dickens on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England. He was the second of eight children. His father, John Dickens, was a naval clerk who dreamed of striking it rich. Charles Dickens’ mother, Elizabeth Barrow, aspired to be a teacher and school director. Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family remained poor. Nevertheless, they were happy in the early days. In 1816, they moved to Chatham, Kent, where young Charles and his siblings were free to roam the countryside and explore the old castle at Rochester. In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London.

By then the family’s financial situation had grown dire, as John Dickens had a dangerous habit of living beyond the family’s means. Eventually, John was sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was just 12 years old. Following his father’s imprisonment, Charles Dickens was forced to leave school to work at a boot-blacking factory alongside the River Thames. At the rundown, rodent-ridden factory, Dickens earned six shillings a week labeling pots of “blacking,” a substance used to clean fireplaces. It was the best he could do to help support his family. Looking back on the experience, Dickens saw it as the moment he said goodbye to his youthful innocence, stating that he wondered “how [he] could be so easily cast away at such a young age.” He felt abandoned and betrayed by the adults who were supposed to take care of him. These sentiments would later become a recurring theme in his writing. Much to his relief, Dickens was permitted to go back to school when his father received a family inheritance and used it to pay off his debts. But when Dickens was 15, his education was pulled out from under him once again.

In 1827, he had to drop out of school and work as an office boy to contribute to his family’s income. As it turned out, the job became an early launching point for his writing career. Within a year of being hired, Dickens began freelance reporting at the law courts of London. Just a few years later, he was reporting for two major London newspapers. In 1833, he began submitting sketches to various magazines and newspapers under the pseudonym “Boz.” In 1836, his clippings were published in his first book, Sketches by Boz. Dickens’ first success caught the eye of Catherine Hogarth, whom he soon married. Catherine would grace Charles with a brood of 10 children before the couple separated in 1858. Early Writing In the same year that Sketches by Boz was released, Dickens started publishing The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. His series of sketches, originally written as captions for artist Robert Seymour’s humorous sports-themed illustrations, took the form of monthly serial installments. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was wildly popular with readers.

In fact, Dickens’ sketches were even more popular than the illustrations they were meant to accompany. Around this time, Dickens had also become publisher of a magazine called Bentley’s Miscellany. In it he started publishing his first novel, Oliver Twist, which follows the life of an orphan living in the streets. The story was inspired by how Dickens felt as an impoverished child forced to get by on his wits and earn his own keep. Dickens continued showcasing Oliver Twist in the magazines he later edited, including Household Words and All the Year Round, the latter of which he founded. The novel was extremely well received in both England and America. Dedicated readers of Oliver Twist eagerly anticipated the next monthly installment. Over the next few years, Dickens struggled to match the level of Oliver Twist’s success. From 1838 to 1841, he published The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge. In 1842, Dickens and his wife, Kate, embarked on a five-month lecture tour of the United States. Upon their return, Dickens penned American Notes for General Circulation, a sarcastic travelogue criticizing American culture and materialism.

In 1843, Dickens wrote his novel The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, a story about a man’s struggle to survive on the ruthless American frontier. The book was published the following year. Over the next couple of years, Dickens published two Christmas stories. One was the classic A Christmas Carol, which features the timeless protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly old miser, who, with the help of a ghost, finds the Christmas spirit. READ MORE: Charles Dickens: 5 Facts on the Author & Some Gruesome Truths About His Victorian England Fame During his first U.S. tour, in 1842, Dickens designated himself as what many have deemed the first modern celebrity. He spoke of his opposition to slavery and expressed his support for additional reform. His lectures, which began in Virginia and ended in Missouri, were so widely attended that ticket scalpers started gathering outside his events. Biographer J.B. Priestly wrote that during the tour, Dickens “had the greatest welcome that probably any visitor to America has ever had.” “They flock around me as if I were an idol,” bragged Dickens, a known show-off.

Although he enjoyed the attention at first, he eventually resented the invasion of privacy. He was also annoyed by what he viewed as Americans’ gregariousness and crude habits, as he later expressed in American Notes. In light of his criticism of the American people during his first tour, Dickens launched a second U.S. tour, from 1867 to 1868, hoping to set things right with the public. On his second tour, he made a charismatic speech promising to praise the United States in reprints of American Notes for General Circulation and The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. His 76 readings earned him no less than $95,000, which, in the Victoria era, amounted to approximately $1.5 million in current U.S. dollars. Back at home, Dickens had become so famous that people recognized him all over London as he strolled around the city collecting the observations that would serve as inspiration for his future work. Later years In 1845, after Dickens had toured the United States once, he spent a year in Italy writing Pictures from Italy.

Over the next two years he published, in installments, his next novel, Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son. The novel’s main theme is how business tactics affect a family’s personal finances. It takes a dark view of England and was pivotal to Dickens’ body of work in that it set the tone for his other novels. From 1849 to 1850, Dickens worked on David Copperfield, the first work of its kind; no one had ever written a novel that simply followed a character through his everyday life. In writing it, Dickens tapped into his own personal experiences, from his difficult childhood to his work as a journalist. Although David Copperfield is not considered Dickens’ best work, it was his personal favorite. It also helped define the public’s expectations of a Dickensian novel. During the 1850s, Dickens suffered two devastating losses: the deaths of his daughter and father. He also separated from his wife during that decade, with Dickens slandering Kate publicly. He had also met a young actress named Ellen "Nelly" Ternan, with whom he had an intimate relationship.

Sources differ on whether the two started seeing each other before or after Dickens' marital separation; it is also believed that he went to great lengths to erase any documentation alluding to Ternan's presence in his life. His novels also began to express a darkened worldview. In Bleak House, published in installments from 1852 to 1853, he deals with the hypocrisy of British society. It was considered his most complex novel to date. Hard Times (published in 1854) takes place in an industrial town at the peak of economic expansion. In it, Dickens focuses on the shortcomings of employers as well as those who seek change. Also among Dickens’ darker novels is Little Dorrit, a fictional study of how human values come in conflict with the world’s brutality. Coming out of his “dark novel” period, in 1859 Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities, a historical novel that takes place during the French Revolution. He published it in a periodical he founded, All the Year Round. His next novel, Great Expectations (1860-1861), focuses on the protagonist’s lifelong journey of moral development. It is widely considered his greatest literary accomplishment.

A few years later, Dickens produced Our Mutual Friend, a novel that analyzes the psychological impact of wealth on London society. Death In 1865, Dickens was in a train accident and never fully recovered. Despite his fragile condition, he continued to tour until 1870. On June 9, 1870, Dickens had a stroke and, at age 58, died at Gad’s Hill Place, his country home in Kent, England. He was buried in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey, with thousands of mourners gathering at the beloved author’s gravesite. Scottish satirical writer Thomas Carlyle described Dickens’ passing as “an event worldwide, a unique of talents suddenly extinct.” At the time of Dickens’ death, his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was left unfinished. Videos Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens · OverDrive: eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries Classic Literature Fiction Wealthy and old, Martin Chuzzlewit, Sr., is surrounded by greedy relatives hoping to obtain a portion of his estate upon his death. His two descendants, Martin, Jr., and Jonas, have been born and bred in the same heritage of selfishness, the Chuzzlewit tradition.

Set partly in America, of which Dickens offers a searing satire, this novel follows and contrasts the opposing fates of Martin and Jonas. While one achieves worldly success and, eventually, moral redemption, the other sinks deeper into the darkness—and pays the ultimate price. This powerful black comedy is a tale of hypocrisy, greed, and blackmail, and it introduces the most famous of Dickens' grotesques: Mrs. Gamp. United States, Singapore, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom Format OverDrive MP3 Audiobook 979.1 MB OverDrive Listen 979.1 MB Charles Dickens (Author) Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was born in Landport, Portsmouth, England, the second of eight children in a family continually plagued by debt. A legacy brought release from the nightmare of debtors' prison and child labor and afforded him a few year...

Question: Which Dickens novel is partly set in America?
Answer: Martin Chuzzlewit